In a painstaking process this alternate history storyline has been researched and is presented for your entertainment.
By using historical documents from the US Joint Chiefs of Staff we know exactly what the contingency plans were in the case of an expected Soviet attack in 1946.

Research

Wikipedia

Search results

Banner

ame>

Book One World War Three 1946

New Book Covers

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Polonium

August 13th, 19469:04 hoursOak Ridge

His hands were slick with sweat in the rubberized gloves as he carefully lifted the container from the vault. In his sweaty hands he held the most expensive and deadliest substance on earth. It was the key to detonating the atomic bomb. Most people have never heard of it but for the last year it had been his life. In his capacity of Health Physics Officer he had full access to both the Oak Ridge and Dayton nuclear sites.

Both facilities were gearing up for maximum production and research. Many of the original team, along with many new members were drafted after the Soviet attack to continue their work. Their newly acquired civilian jobs where left behind because their nation needed them once again.

In his job as Health Physics Officer he had handled the containers many times and even helped dispense its contents during the production process. He knew the dangers and knew what he had to do to protect his own life. A salt size grain of this harmless looking powder could kill thousands of the strongest and healthiest man on earth if breathed in or ingested. Death comes with less than 50 nanograms. The amount in each container could easily kill a small city.

Intellectually he knew that external alpha irradiation is not harmful because alpha particles are completely absorbed by a very thin dead layer of skin as well as by a few centimeters of air. But on a gut level he was scared shitless about what he was planning on doing. He had split the available supply into two separate containers. One was destined for Oak Ridge and the other for Dayton.

His Soviet handlers had taught him how to attach the detonator to the explosives and set the timers. He had in turn provided them with the best locations for the explosions in each facility. Each location was chosen to infect the maximum number of critical personnel and the timers were to be set to a time when the maximum number would be gathered in the same place.

The explosions would be small just enough to destroy the containers and disperse the Polonium. They would cause a momentary concern and investigation but the buildings would continue to be used well after infecting most of his colleagues. Within weeks they would be dead.

Polonium is almost undetectable outside of the body of the victim and even then you have to be looking for it. The small damage by the explosive would be fixed in an afternoon and the both operations would be up and running in hours. Even if they did suspect something it would be too late for those in the facility at the time and if by some miracle they did all get out in time and did figure out that there was polonium involved the facilities themselves would be contaminated and useless for generations.

He regretted this on one hand but on the other their work had been responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths and countless tales of sickness and deformities for generation to come. It was easy for his Soviet handlers to convince him of what had to be done.

After seeing what happened in Japan he might have done it anyway.

Ironic how Polonium was discovered by Madame Curie and her husband and it probably killed them. Kind of fitting in a way. It was named after her beloved country of Poland in a possible attempt to first rid it and then keep it free from foreign invasion. It didn’t seem to have been very successful.

Polonium…The Holy Grail and key to causing a nuclear chain reaction in a Mark III atomic bomb. Polonium…the most sought after substance in the world and the most deadly.

The Soviet spy code named Delmar was about to change the course of history forever and Delmar almost forgot to replace the real containers with their fake replacements. He had actually closed the vault before he remembered and this fact filled him with doubts about his abilities to carry out his plan.

Full scale production of the atomic bombs was about to resume. The new assembly teams had been trained and had practiced for weeks. Just the right combination of individuals has been found and recruited. With the loss of the Leningrad bomb the US was down to 3 usable atomic bombs. His safely hidden containers held the entire US supply of polonium

He had 48 hours to place both dirty bombs. He had 48 hours to become the deadliest saboteur in modern history. Ironically he also had 48 hours to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of his fellow countrymen from the fate of nuclear horror. He had 48 hours to basically stop the American nuclear program for years to come.

This weighed heavily on Delmar His heart was racing and he was breathing hard. All the guards in both locations were used to seeing him crawling around in restricted areas carrying his tools and instruments in his tool bag. He was the Health Physics Officer and it was his job to crawl around testing for radiation, just as he had been doing for years. He had Top Secret clearance. It should be no problem at all for him to both smuggle the containers in and place them where they needed to be set.

The explosives had been brought in bit by bit in hidden in his tools, hollow coins etc. during the last few months. The small detonators were hidden in his Geiger counter. The timers were two exact copies of his old and familiar watch. In fact that had almost got him caught.

One of the new guards commented on his new watch. If one of the old guards had noticed the same thing there might have been trouble. He had to figure out how to make his new watches look old. It’s surprisingly hard to do convincingly but he had accomplished the task just last week.

The explosives, timers and detonators were waiting. All that was missing was the Polonium and the hands that would put them all together.